Ecconomical "sporty" cars

Tomby1

Someone mentioned an FTO - anyone got any opinions on the FTO? Considering buying one and can't really find a reason not to at the moment.

tbourner

They're slower than they look.
They're front wheel drive.

almillar

jaydeeuk1 - awesome cars, hope you've done your research. If you plan for 20 MPG, you'll be happy. Driving it economically doesn't reward you, and driving it 'uneconomically' doesn't really punish you either!

rxbren

fiat coupe's are terrible most are modified and badly done also heavy on fuel for what they do also fwd so anything oer 300bhp is wasted
ftos look quite good, sound good but are slow
rx8's look great but are more of a style car than performance the rotary 13b renisis engine is good as long has been looked after most will need rebuilds im not a scaremonger of these engines as i have a fd rx7 which for the money out performs most things on the road and still looks awesome to this day

Tilt

rxbren wrote: »

fiat coupe's are terrible most are modified and badly done also heavy on fuel for what they do also fwd so anything oer 300bhp is wasted
ftos look quite good, sound good but are slow
rx8's look great but are more of a style car than performance the rotary 13b renisis engine is good as long has been looked after most will need rebuilds im not a scaremonger of these engines as i have a fd rx7 which for the money out performs most things on the road and still looks awesome to this day

Have you ever owned/driven one? How do you know that 'most are modified'? The only accurate part of your comment is the fact that they are indeed fwd.

rxbren

i have driven two, a non turbo (aftermarket suspension and wheels) and a turbo (running over 300bhp)
a couple of mates had them and the very few you did see on the road were all modified that and the poor build quality reliablilty they had on theirs fair to say each of them could only put up with them for a few months

Tilt

The two I have owned must of been unique then because they were both excellent cars bit in build quality and performance. And in my opinion, the LE and Turbo Plus versions need no modifications what so ever.

almillar

rxbren - you're getting a bit confused. RX7ss need engine rebuilds at around 60k miles I think - RX8s do not. The tips at the 3 ends of the rotors would wear out on the 7, but on the 8 they are made much much harder, and are lubricated better.
The RX7 was a supercar, the RX8 went downmarket from there (no turbo for example) but I wouldn't call it style over substance.

rxbren

rx7's and rebuilds at 60k is urban/internet legend/myth some last 100k some last 10k
most need rebuilds come from waterseal failure
and quite alot of rx8's do need rebuilds due to alot of owners treating them like boinger (piston) engines ie not checking oil wrong shutdown procedure flooding etc
rx8's are prone to issues with the cats aswell
but like all rotarys if they overheat too badly its rebuild time

and the fiat coupes the non turbo and 16v turbo were luke warm they had the silghtyly better performance than a saxo vtr/non turbo mr2
although the 20v turbo was fairly quick

almillar

but like all [STRIKE]rotarys[/STRIKE] engines if they overheat too badly its rebuild time

Yep, but I think that RX8 engines are generally regarded as lasting longer than RX7 ones.